Page:Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology 1915-1960.pdf/27

 1938) had led to five different families of low-drag wings by the end of 1939.

May 14: German Luftwaffe bombed Rotterdam.

May 15-16: First large-scale RAF raids on German industrial targets with 93 bombers attacking objectives in the Ruhr.

May 16: President Roosevelt called for U.S. production of 50,000 planes a year.

May 28: Robert H. Goddard offered all his research data, patents, and facilities for use by the military services at a meeting with representatives of Army Ordnance, Army Air Corps, and Navy Bureau of Aeronautics arranged by Harry Guggenheim. However, nothing resulted from this except an expression of possible use of rockets in jet-assisted take-offs of aircraft.

May 29: Chance Vought F4U Corsair Navy fighter with inverted gull wing made its first test flight.

June 8: Paris office of the NACA was closed.

June 26: Congress authorized construction of the third NACA laboratory near Cleveland, Ohio, which became Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. In 1948, it was named for George W. Lewis, NACA Director of Aeronautical Research, 1924-47.

June 27: National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) created by the Council of National Defense.

July 8: First commercial flight of the Boeing 307-B Stratoliner, Burbank, Calif., to Long Island, N.Y., the first commercial flight to use a pressurized cabin, in record time of 12 hours 18 minutes.

During July: National Defense Research Committee established Jet Propulsion Research Committee under Section H of Division A, at Naval Powder Factory, Indian Head, Md., to conduct fundamental research on rocket ordnance. C. N. Hickman, who had worked with Goddard during World War I, was named as head.

August 2: Beginning of the Battle of Britain, which raged until the end of October.

During August: Sir Henry Tizard, scientific adviser to the British Ministry of Aircraft Production, headed a mission of leading British and Canadian scientists to brief official American representatives on devices under active development for war use and to enlist the support of American scientists. This marked the beginning of very close cooperation of Anglo-American scientists in many fields, including aeronautics and rocketry, enabling American laboratories to catch up with war-accelerated progress.

August 20: Smith J. DeFrance appointed Engineer-in-Charge of the NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Moffett Field, Calif.

August 25: First RAF bombing of Berlin.

During September: Royal Air Force used AA rockets against Luftwaffe planes in the Battle of Britain.


 * First test firing of NDRC rocket program at Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Va., a rocket-propelled bomb to pierce 14-inch armor requested by BuOrd.

November 25: De Havilland all-wood Mosquito bomber made its first flight, with large-scale production beginning in July 1941.

During 1940: Committee of the National Academy of Sciences reported that operation of turbine wheels at temperatures up to 1,500° F might soon be possible due to U.S. and foreign development of high-temperature alloys.


 * Dr. Heinz von Diringshofen of Berlin, Germany, "discovered" the effect of weightlessness during flight maneuvers with high-performance aircraft.


 * N. W. Thorner and F. H. Lewey demonstrated the destruction of certain brain cells in experimental animals by short and severe exposures to hypoxia induced by inhalation of pure nitrogen.


 * Graf Zeppelin I and II were intentionally destroyed by the Germans and their metal used for the Reich war effort.

January 11: Army Air Corps announced the control of robot planes, either by radio from the ground or from another plane, had been tested successfully.

During January: RCA proposed to NDRC the design and development of a rocket-propelled, radio-controlled aerial torpedo with TV nose, which was given the code name "Dragon." The National Bureau of Standards was assigned the task of developing a suitable airframe.

February 5: Bureau of Standards developed a photoelectric detector to simplify the measurement of the height of clouds.

During February: Army Air Corps initiated the development of radio-controlled aerial gliding torpedoes, gliding bombs, and aerial mines.

March 24: Classic NACA report prepared by Robert R. Gilruth provided the basis for subsequent aircraft development (NACA Report No. 755, "Requirements for Satisfactory Flying Qualities of Airplanes").

During March: NACA established a Special Committee on Jet Propulsion to review early British reports on the Whittle engine, which subsequently aided the development of the TG-100 turboprop engine by GE and the 19-B turbojet by Westinghouse. Dr. W. F. Durand was called out of retirement to head this committee.

April 15: Igor Sikorsky piloted a Vought-Sikorsky in the first officially recorded single-rotor helicopter flight longer than an hour in the Western Hemisphere; flying time, 1 hour 5 minutes 14.5 seconds; at Stratford, Conn.

April 19: Naval Aircraft Factory initiated the development of a Glomb (glider bomb), to be towed long distances by powered aircraft and released over the target, guided by radio control and target-viewing television.

May 15: First official flight of British turbojet, Gloster E28/39 with Whittle WIX jet engine, at Cranwell, England, flown by Flight Lt. Sayer for about 17 minutes.


 * British De Havilland Mosquito equipped as a night fighter (W4052) made its first flight with AI radar.

May 21: Army Corps Ferrying Command, forerunner of AAF's Air Transport Command, was created. By V-E Day, it possessed 2,461 transports, of which 798 were 4-engined.


 * Navy Engineering Experiment Station, Annapolis, Md., directed to undertake development of liquid-fuel rocket JATO for large flying boats.

May 29: Naval Powder Factory, Indian Head, developed and successfully tested a 4.5-inch AA rocket.

During May: Republic XP-47 Thunderbolt made its first flight.

May-June: First satisfactory spark plugs (ceramic insulated) for high-performance U.S. aircraft engines such as the P&W R-2800 were ordered in mass quantities. Plugs were developed under the direction of T. T. Neill, Air Corps ignition engineer at Wright Field.

June 20: Establishment of the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF), comprising the Office of the Chief of Air Corps and the Air Force Combat Command (formerly GHQ Air Force), with Maj. Gen. H. H. Arnold as Chief.

June 22: U.S.S.R. was attacked by Germany.


 * Ceramic-lined rocket thrust chamber designed by Alfred Africano generated 260-pound thrust.

June 28: Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) in the Office of Emergency Management was created by President Roosevelt in Executive Order 8807.

June 30: Joint Army-Navy project contract given to Northrop for the design of an aircraft gas turbine developing 2,500 hp at a weight of less than 3,215 pounds.

During June: Col. Donald J. Keirn of Wright Field was sent to England to study the Gloster jet aircraft and its Whittle-I 40